Top spot has all but been wrapped up by Sydney, so Hawthorn and the Cats are almost certain to face off in the first week of finals, at the MCG, regardless of upcoming results.

And while the Dockers dominated the game and stats sheets in the win on Sunday, they only managed a 19-point victory – something Hawks coach Alastair Clarkson was clear to point out post siren.

“They ended up beating us on the inside 50 count by 13 or 14 or somewhere there abouts (14),” Clarkson said. “If you give any good side in the competition that type of buffer in the inside entries, then probably over the scheme of the game, for us to lose by only three goals in those circumstances, you know we guts it out, we didn't play anywhere near our best and we lost by three goals.

“I thought they played a really good third quarter. The game could have really opened up if it was a side that didn't have a fair bit of resilience and endeavour to stay in the contest and I was pleased with how we fought out the game.

Advertisement

“We've only got two home and away games left. We've done really well to get ourselves to 15 wins to the 20 rounds we've played thus far. I don't think we can drop out of top four, so that's a really good effort.

“That was our goal at the start of the year. From this point in time we want to keep winning games so we can finish as high as we can. But we are going to have to play well against Geelong next week to get the points. But if we don't, it's not the end of the world, because we are guaranteed the double chance, so it's a good position to be in.”

If the cards fall against the Hawks in the first round of finals and they get through the second, the reigning premiers could even be back at Patersons Stadium for the preliminary final, fighting the Dockers for a spot in the grand final.

And with Sunday being only the second time Hawthorn has played Fremantle in Perth since the 2010 elimination final (plus twice to play West Coast), Clarkson appeared to have used the clash as more of a fact-finding mission.

“It's a tough battle to come interstate,” he said.

“It's hard to come here and win games of footy - it's a difficult ground - they play on it every second week and know the ground really well.

“You need to play at your very best to get the points against them, on this oval - and we failed to do that today.

“So we'll take some positives out of the game, albeit it’s another experience to come here to Fremantle play against a good opponent - in warmer types of conditions that are more like spring weather that you're going to get come finals time.

“So there are a lot of benefits to come on the road. We might have to play interstate in finals; we learn a few things about tonight - both about the venue, about the game style that we tried to play, the game style that Fremantle played.

“We're not going to cry too much about this loss. We didn't play as well as we could have, Fremantle played a pretty good brand of footy.

”They are a good side and we probably need to knock them off at some stage in the finals if we want to salute.”

Hawthorn will welcome Jarryd Roughead back into the side for Saturday night’s blockbuster at the MCG after he sat out against the Dockers due to suspension.

And while the Hawks converted well in attack – 26 scoring shots from 38 entries inside 50 – Clarkson admitted that his side needed its leading goal scorer.

Although Hawthorn still managed one more mark inside 50 than the Dockers (11 to 10) and eight players kicked goals, led by Paul Puoplo’s haul of four.

“But we had a pretty important player to our mix in Roughead out of the game,” Clarkson said.

“He makes a significant difference. If you take one of your best players out of any side in the competition, it’s going to make a big difference.

“He'll help us with that presence in our front half. We were pretty small at times, and pretty inexperienced at others.

‘’There's three or four really good sides that are pretty evenly matched. Whoever plays the best footy in September is going to take the title this year. We're in the mix for that, but we're going to need to play better than we did tonight to get the chocolates.”